The voices in my head don't think they're imaginary - Travelling to Wiscon

Sometimes, when I have plenty of time between connecting flights, I will opt for a seat in the very back of the plane. There are obvious downsides to these seats, most notably that you have to wait for everyone else to get off before you can escape your blue-polyester upholstered sarcophagus. However, there are potential advantages, namely that you can often snag a whole row to yourself.

Not so on today's flight from PDX to Minneapolis. Instead, I got stuck in the back of the plane with a big noisy group of Rumanian Pentacostal teenagers. They were really amazed by the most mundane aspects of modern air travel ("Hey, you know what's weird? When we get to Minneapolis it will be 11:30 a.m., but back in Portland it will only be 9:30 a.m.!!)

Stuck in the back as we were waiting to deplane, the teenagers had little to amuse themselves with other than razzing the efforts of the baggage handlers working below. ("You know what those guys make? Like $15,000 a year! Losers!")

Big fun, I tell you.

In other news, MSP has installed these amazingly cool Dyson AirBlade hand dryers in their bathrooms since I was here last. These things are amazing. They actually, like, dry your hands. In about two seconds flat. They are so neato, I hope we start to see them all over the world. I find it fascinating that Dyson is building a brand around, y'know, stuff actually working. One would think that would be table stakes, but apparently not, apparently that's a Unique Selling Proposition in today's topsy-turvy funhouse of a world.

In other other news, I'm bringing about four separate stories near to completion, and just in time too: Tin House's "Fantastic Women" deadline is coming up, and "Paradox" is just about to reopen for submissions.

And that's all the news from Minneapolis. Stay tuned for news from Madison AS IT HAPPENS!